ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Public School District has begun a more than $2 million project to replace old chain link fences from 27 buildings, all contaminated with lead.
With shovel in hand Tuesday morning, The St. Louis Public School District (SLPS) broke ground on an important new project aimed at protecting kids starting at Columbia Elementary School.
“This is a part of our lead hazardous critical that we established back in 2007, so this is a part of our original plan to address lead in all of our facilities,” said Square Watson, SLPS Deputy Superintendent of Operations.
Built-in 1929, buildings like Columbia include an example of old fencing infrastructure that contains poisonous lead.
This summer, chain-link fencing at 27 St. Louis public schools, 21 of which are operational, will be replaced with safer, vinyl-coated galvanized steel.
This comes after a series of wrought iron fences seen at many of the same schools were coated, which also deemed them safe without having to be entirely replaced.
“Think about the little kids touching, leaning, licking the fence all throughout the school year, so I’m glad they’re taking action,” said Kara Vaninger, who lives near Betty Wheeler Junior Classical Academy.
The $2.1 million project is a combination of federal and state funding. The fencing at the 27 schools is expected to be replaced by the fall.
“We walk up and down Edwards a lot, and it would be probably beneficial for the kids to not have to touch it and get lead in their system,” said Niki Cusumano, a concerned mother.
In The Hill neighborhood, Cusumano and her three young kids have lived across the street from one of the SLPS schools affected for 10 years.
Her kids have gotten lead poisoning from their home feet away, most likely built with some of the same materials found in the fencing and much of the neighborhood.
“We had that taken care of, we had to replace all the windows here,” Cusumano said. “So no more lead!”
Here’s the full list of St. Louis schools with fences that contain lead.
List of schools with contaminated lead fencing. Courtesy of St. Louis Public Schools District
